The Personal Information Protection Commission has launched an investigation into a situation in which details were exposed on external websites during the process of domestic digital sex crime victims requesting Google to delete illegal recordings.
The Personal Information Protection Commission said on the 11th that it launched an investigation, including requesting materials from Google on the 7th to verify the facts, following media reports that "deletion requests related to digital sex crime materials provided to Google were disclosed on external websites."
The Personal Information Protection Commission is checking the facts, including the scale and items of sensitive personal information Google provided to the external website operator and the period of provision. It plans to closely examine how the harm occurred, including whether Google continued to provide deletion requests to the website operator, and whether there was human error, a system failure, and the like.
It also plans to focus on reviewing whether Google had a lawful basis for processing when providing personal information to a third-party website operator and whether consent procedures were followed when transmitting sensitive information, to determine if there were violations of the Personal Information Protection Act.
A Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) official said, "This case involves sensitive information about digital sex crime victims and is a serious matter that raises concerns about secondary harm," adding, "We will conduct a focused investigation into the overall flow of personal information processing between Google and the external website operator."
It added that if, during the investigation, any items are identified that require urgent deletion or blocking, it will work to prevent further harm by demanding that Google and other website operators take immediate corrective action.
Earlier, Google issued an official apology and said it would prepare measures to prevent a recurrence after personal information and details of harm were exposed on external sites during the process of digital sex crime victims requesting the deletion of illegal recordings. The exposed materials reportedly included the victims' names, workplaces, and contact information, as well as the addresses of the harmful videos and specific pleas describing the harm.
On the 9th, Google, in a statement under the name of Amanda Storey, vice president for "trust and safety, regulation, transparency and risk," said, "We sincerely apologize for causing concern to victims and the public due to the unintentional exposure of information."
Google explained that the principle of not sharing sensitive information and specific details with third-party research databases during internal processing was not properly observed. Google activated an emergency response system with the site and permanently deleted from its servers all notices and related information confirmed to have been exposed.
For all new legal deletion requests received in Korea, it has completely halted the procedure of sending notices to the site. It also said it blocked all previously transmitted notices related to domestic legal deletion requests so they cannot be viewed externally.